Sam and Jon's Hobbit Fellowship Decks

Started a Hobbit Fellowship between these two decks beginning on 1/21. Played and beat the OHaUH quests 3/4, repeating Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim only once. Between the two decks, Sam handles much of the killing in combat, while the Dwarves defend with their sentinels. Both decks quest really well, and if the Dwarves have had luck, they end up having an immense board state at the end of the game due to [We Are Not Idle] and (/card/04129) and Lure of Moria. Sam's deck is extremely proficient at yanking warriors out of his deck with Prince Imrahil's ability, in order to pull ranged attackers out - particularly if he has Elf-friend attached to Prince Imrahil. Making sure you acquire Legacy of Durin and getting to an maintaining 5 dwarves on the board is also extremely important too.

Scores for Normal Mode OHaUH: We Must Away, Ere Break of Day - 169 Over the Misty Mountains Grim - 174 Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim - 126 (yes, we crushed this one).

From Jon's Quad-Sphere Dwarven Swarm (published on Ringsdb): "_This deck is a very fun dwarf swarm that I have slowly tailored as cards have come out. When I first started playing this game about a year ago, Dwarves were the first trait that I built around, as my play group never played them and so those cards were always ready to play.

This deck started as a Dain Ironfoot/Ori/Óin led team. That was where the quad-sphere was born, and I really enjoyed it, but over time I wanted to branch away from Dain Ironfoot - not that he is bad, he is just really good though kind of one-dimensional (in my opinion). If I find myself really stuck in a quest, I do bring him back out for disrespecting my Dwarves.

In comes Thorin Oakenshield. He's the leader of the crew in the Hobbit tales, and I think his ability works with pushing that 5-dwarf limit that synergizes with the swarm and Ori as well. Knowing when to blow his resources and knowing when to hold back is a test. Not to mention his ability works really well with Gaining Strength.

I also swapped over to Nori - for obvious reasons. With him in the line-up, it is not unusual to possibly finish a game with less threat than you began with in this style of deck.

This deck has served me well in a wide variety of quests. Not to mention, there are plenty of one-use tools that can be added for specific quests. Belegost (the deck has beaten Belegost 4p) or Dwarrowdelf cycles? Ever My Heart Rises. Locations being a pain in the butt? Thror's Map or Thrór's Key.

The only downside I can think of is this deck takes at least a turn to get off to a good start sometimes - mainly so that you can stockpile resources round one. If your playgroup is strong though, they can live without you for one turn while you gather your Dwarven forces!

A great first hand: Tighten Our Belts - do not play anything or very minimally first turn, start round 2 with 3 resources on each hero, Fili/Kili (so that you can play one of them, find the other, be at 5 dwarves), Legacy of Durin - to begin the janks of play a dwarf, draw + lower threat, and round out the starting hand with some low cost allies if possible.

Also, Will of the West is pretty superb, because it is entirely possible for you to draw through your deck entirely. Also makes the threat of the Zigil Miner digging to not ruin some of the 1-of's that are in the deck too. And what group doesn't beg for more cancellation by the way of Will of the West or Hasty Stroke?_"

From Sam's Elf Janks with Imrahil (Published on Ringsdb) "I immensely enjoyed this deck when I tried it out for the first time last Friday. Being able to put an ally into play with Prince Imrahil and then using Feigned Voices or Pursuing the Enemy to pull the ally into your hand is extremely satisfying.

The great thing about this deck is that most of the allies are warriors which still makes Imrahil's ability relevant if you are unable to draw Elf-friend in your opening hand. Also, having nine willpower to quest with in the opening turn is helpful, especially if you are paired with other decks that start slow in that area. Combat is not a problem for this deck at all. I was immensely impressed with that. There are an incredible amount of janks you can pull depending on which ally you get. Greenwood Archer is probably the jankiest ally especially if you need to help out a friend. I have also been able to put Orophin into play and pull an ally from the discard which allowed me to Sneak Attack it on the board. This is absolutely ridiculous, especially with almost all ranged allies with 3 or more attack power after Celeborn's ability.

On my side board I have Thalin and Unlikely Friendship in case someone else needs to play Éowyn. I have not tried out that other variant but I am curious to see how it would do in comparison."

• Scores for Normal Mode OHaUH:
• We Must Away, Ere Break of Day - 169
• Over the Misty Mountains Grim - 174

• Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim - 126 (yes, we crushed this one).

• Scores for OtD:
• Flies and Spiders: 2 or 3 tries needed, 165
• The Lonely Mountain: Nori died for the dwarves from a hit from Smaug. Jerk. But we carried on and prevailed. Score: 166
• Battle of the Five Armies: We'll see soon!